The Parents' Return
by xAndromedaBlackx
Summary: AU, PostOotP. Lily and James come back to life. How will Harry, Remus, Sirius, and everyone else react? How will this change the events of Harry's sixth year? Set after Book 5, but Sirius didn't die. Full explanation inside. Rating for safety -so far-.
1. Lightning

**Sirius didn't die at the Department of Mysteries that day. He **_**almost **_**fell through the Veil, but Remus put a **_**Petrifus Totalus **_**and a **_**Mobilicorpus **_**on him, and he didn't fall in. Harry was so mad at Bellatrix Lestrange for almost killing Sirius that he went after her anyway.**

**Harry didn't yell at Dumbledore and destroy some of his (as in Dumbledore's) possessions when he went to Dumbledore's office for their usual after-adventure-thingy talk. He learned of the prophecy and everything, and Sirius went back to Grimmauld Place as usual, and Harry went to the Dursleys after the school term ended.**

**This means that Kreacher will NOT get sent to Hogwarts, because Harry didn't become the master of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, since Sirius didn't die. **

**Also, Sirius was not pardoned, or freed, or caught or anything. Like I said, he simply went back to Order headquarters after the battle, before Fudge and the Aurors got there.**

* * *

On a surprisingly cold summer day in Godric's Hollow… read the author's note above if you haven't already. And now on to the real story.

* * *

In the small town of Godric's Hollow there was an abandoned house. This house was at the very end of the most deserted street in Godric's Hollow, and said house was falling down. It was a ruined wreck. It was demolished.

No one ever dared to go down the street. Sometimes people came and passed by the street, but everyone knew of the ruins of what once was a nice house there, so no one ever went to check it out.

Sometimes people told stories of the house. They said there was a young couple, named Lily and James Potter, recently wed. They had a beautiful baby boy named Harry, and they were the nicest, most picture-perfect family you could find anywhere.

Lily and James Potter were extremely odd, though. The father always carried a wooden stick in his back pocket—it always stuck out, and when he walked by, people noticed it, and thought it was strange. The mother was a nurse, but no one ever saw her in hospitals nearby.

Lily and James Potter disappeared a little while after their baby boy was born. No one knew where they had gone—it seemed as if they had simply vanished off the face of the earth.

But then one Halloween night, the house where the young couple had lived seemed to have reappeared again. There were flashes of green light, and then an explosion. The dead bodies of Lily and James Potter were found in the ruins of the house. Their baby boy was missing.

It was rumored that an evil person had come and killed the parents, but had somehow been killed himself when he tried to kill the baby boy. Then he had disappeared, but not before blowing up the house.

Some people said that the baby, Harry, had been killed in the explosion. Other people said that some people had come to take him away and raise him somewhere else. It was also rumored that the ghosts of Lily and James Potter wandered around the house and down the street, looking for their baby boy.

Needless to say, no one ever dared to go down that street after hearing that story. So no one would have seen it when, sometime mid-July, when there was a storm, a bolt of lightning cracked down upon the ruins of the house, depositing two unconscious bodies into the demolished home at separate ends (of the home).

These people's names were Lily and James Potter.

* * *

James groaned. His whole body ached, as if he had just fallen off his broomstick during a particularly rough Quidditch match. He wondered where he was—he was lying on a very hard surface.

Suddenly the memories came flooding back to James. _Voldemort… duel… Lily… Harry…_

James forced himself up, ignoring his protesting limbs. He squinted his eyes open, and stared in horror and shock around at his home. It was completely destroyed—he was lying in the ruins.

"Lily!" he called. His voice cracked, as if he had not used it in a long time. "Lily, are you okay? What about Harry?" He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, praying to God for an answer. _Please don't let them be dead… please don't let them be dead… please don't let them be dead… please don't let them be dead… _

A muffled groan was all that he got as a response. James's heart leapt.

"Lily?" he called again, this time louder and a bit more confidently. "Lily?"

He trudged through the wreckage, carefully not looking at all of their demolished possessions. James glanced at the staircase—it was almost falling down, but it seemed to be sturdy enough.

James climbed up the creaky staircase, occasionally expecting it to fall and take him with it, but it didn't. He stumbled into the room, and saw Lily crumpled on the floor.

"Lily!" James gasped, rushing towards her, none too steadily. "Are you alright?"

Lily let out a weak moan and pushed herself up with great effort. "James," she sobbed, throwing herself into his open arms. "James, Harry's dead. V-Voldemort k-k-killed him." Her teeth chattered.

James felt a pain, like a knife stabbing into his heart. "Wh-what?" he gasped out, hoping he had heard her wrong.

"Harry's dead! Harry, my baby boy, he's dead!" Lily sobbed harder than ever.

"That's not possible," James stammered in shock. "He was alive just a moment ago…"

"It's all Voldemort's fault!" Lily wept. "That bloody bastard killed my child!"

"You… you don't know he's dead," James said frantically, trying to reassure himself as much as he was his wife. "Maybe he's just… around here somewhere, and you missed him… or something…"

"I looked," Lily sobbed. "I looked for him, and I didn't find him. He's gone! It's _all Voldemort's fault_! I _hate _him!"

"I hate him too, Lily," James said quietly. Because even though he really wanted to cry, or scream, or shout, or yell, or break something, or whatever, because he just _knew _Harry was dead, he couldn't. It was like all the emotion had been drained from him, and he was too tired to do anything. Instead, his cool, calm Auror side was taking over.

"How could you just say that?" Lily demanded. "Our son is _dead_, and you don't seem sad at all! And it's all _your _fault!"

Lily and James both froze at the same time.

"Oh, James, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to say that. It just slipped out," Lily gasped. "James, I'm sorry."

"You're right," James replied, still in that horribly calm, serious voice. "It is my fault. I didn't protect you or Harry enough."

"James, you tried. That was enough. It's not your fault you couldn't save Harry."

"It _is_ my fault. We should've known Voldemort wouldn't just suspect Sirius and nobody else. We should've known he would've gone after Peter, too. This is all my fault."

"James." Lily stood up rather unsteadily and placed her hands on her husband's shoulders. She looked into his eyes and said quietly, "James, look at me. _It isn't your fault. _You didn't know. If it's your fault, then it's my fault too."

"It's not," James contradicted, his eyes wide.

"Exactly. It's only Voldemort's fault. Voldemort's and no one else's."

"Voldemort's fault, and no one else's," James repeated. "Voldemort's and no one else's. Voldemort's and…" he trailed off, his eyes growing wide with horror. "Voldemort. Oh God, Lily. He must have tortured and killed Peter to get the information of our whereabouts. And then he'll have killed Sirius and Remus and… Lily, it can't be just after Halloween. It's too warm out. It has to be summer, if not spring. We must've been in comas for who knows how long, and… Everyone's probably dead!"

"You don't know that," Lily argued half-heartedly. "Maybe… maybe Sirius and Remus are both alive. Maybe…"

"But what about your friends, Lily?" James demanded. "What about Karen and Alyssa and Alice?"

"They're not dead," Lily said firmly, but her voice was missing enough conviction to prove to James that she was trying to assure herself of this fact as well. "They… they can't be dead…"

Finally James voiced a reasonable opinion. "We have to see Dumbledore."

"Can… can you Apparate?" Lily asked, seemingly numb from the day's events.

"I… think so." James grabbed on to Lily. "Are you steady enough?"

"Enough for Apparating." Lily sniffed twice. Neither of them seemed to notice the steady downpour of rain that was drenching them head to toe. It wasn't important at this very moment, and all it was was a nuisance, a barely noticeable nuisance.

"Okay, we'll go see Dumbledore," James declared, his Auror side taking over again. He closed his eyes and pictured the destination of the Hogwarts grounds, by the Forbidden Forest, just before the Hogwarts wards ended.

And with a _pop_, Lily and James Potter disappeared.

Nobody noticed where another bolt of lightning cracked down upon the exact place Lily and James Potter had first been dumped.

* * *

**Please read and review!  
**

**-xAndromedaBlackx-**

**-chapter edited oct. 6 '08-**


	2. Shock

**A/N: I'm on an updating spree ;O ! **

**Terribly sorry for the long wait. I know it's been over a year, and I'm sorry. D: I'm glad most of you seem to like the story so far though XD Remember, Sirius is alive in my story.  
**

**Enjoy the chapter, if possible :3**

* * *

Rubeus Hagrid was walking out of the Forbidden Forest, whistling a merry tune. He had just gone to visit Aragog, someone he hadn't seen in a long time, and quite frankly, he had missed the old spider.

The waxing crescent moon above him in the night sky cast a dim glow around the Forest, near the Hogwarts grounds. Long shadows stretched out long dark fingers, reaching towards Hogwarts castle.

It was then that Hagrid heard a loud _crack_, the sound of someone Apparating into the Forest, close to Hogwarts. He was instantly on alert. Were those Death Eaters?

Hagrid immediately looked about him, but he saw no one. The sound had been unmistakable, however. And then he heard it - light, unsteady footsteps, probably two or three people. If he wasn't mistaken, those were sniffles too, like someone trying to hold back sobs.

"Who's there?" he called uncertainly into the dark forest, even realizing as he said it that showing himself to be there may not be the best choice of action.

There was a pause in the foosteps.

"Who's there?" Hagrid called, louder. "Show yehself now!"

"H...Hagrid?"

Hagrid froze. How did these people know who he was? And why were they calling his name like that, like he was an old friend? He didn't recognize the voice, although it did sound vaguely familiar.

"If yer Death Eaters..." Hagrid rushed towards a clearing in the Forest, closer to where his hut was.

He stopped dead, as the shadows of the trees did not reach him...him and the two people standing in the clearing just outside the Forest. He could see that it was a man and a woman. The man's hair was black and messy, and the woman was the one holding back sobs. Her hair was a dark red. Both people's clothing were dirty and rumpled.

Hagrid would have recognized those two faces anywhere.

_"Lily an' James Potter?!"_

"Hagrid!" Lily - no, the Lily-imposter, she couldn't be Lily, Lily was dead, had been dead, dead for over a decade! - began sobbing for real and before he knew it, she had thrown herself into his arms and sobbed harder.

"There, there, s'alrigh'," Hagrid found himself saying as he awkwardly patted Lily - no, the Lily-_imposter_ on the back. He knew she was not the real Lily Potter. She couldn't be. So why was he comforting her, and about what, he found himself wondering. She had to be a Death Eater, as well as the James-imposter, but why hadn't they attacked him yet?

"Hagrid, Harry's dead," the James-imposter stammered, wasting no time on pleasantries. "Voldemort killed him." In the moonlight, his face was pale and set. His gaze was lifeless and hollow, as if someone had just torn his heart out of his chest and ripped it in two. Which someone probably had, judging from his expression.

Hagrid couldn't believe it. It was a perfectly normal day, he went to visit Aragog, and all of a sudden, two people masquerading as the long dead Lily and James Potter showed up and began a sob-story about how Harry Potter, who was actually very much alive, was dead.

Hagrid quickly pushed the Lily-imposter away the moment this thought crossed his mind. What was he thinking? He should be calling Professor Dumbledore already.

"Alrigh', I don't know who yeh two are an' what yer doin' here, but I'm tellin' yeh, it's disrespectful to be pretendin' to be Lily an' James Potter. Everyone knows they've been dead fer fifteen years, and Harry Potter is alive. I'll be tellin' Professor Dumbledore about this - "

Hagrid couldn't help feeling that if these two people were Death Eaters, they would have cursed him already, and certainly would be cursing him now that he threatened them with Albus Dumbledore. He knew they could easily kill him - well, maybe not _easily_, but it certainly wouldn't be too hard or anything - and he was taking quite a risk with his life, but the words just spilled out of his mouth. He wanted to believe this was Lily and James - he had missed them, for Lily and James had been as good friends to him as Harry, Ron, and Hermione all were, but the logical part of his brain was telling him it was impossible. It just _couldn't _be possible. Lily and James were _dead_, and dead people didn't just up and come back to life!

"H-Hagrid?" Lily stammered, and Hagrid himself froze. The way she said his name...it had to be Lily, but it couldn't be Lily...

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Lily...no, Lily-imposter, imposter, Hagrid had to remind himself. "H-Harry's dead...he's not there at Godric's Hollow, and... and... he has to be dead, and... and..."

Hagrid just stared at the two people - the woman with the dark red hair, tears streaming down her face, and the black-haired man with the blank expression, both of them in dirty clothes. He couldn't help remembering that when he went to pick up baby Harry to give him to the Dursleys, Lily and James Potter's dead bodies had been sporting the same outfits.

He shuddered. "Righ'," he finally said, when it appeared that the two people pretending to be Lily and James Potter were not planning to curse him, at least, not at this time. "Let's go see Dumbledore."

* * *

Albus Dumbledore had lived a long life, and he had experienced many shocks, surprises, and generally startling situations. But nothing prepared him when, after admitting Rubeus Hagrid into his office, he saw the two people trailing after him.

If his eyes didn't deceive him, that was...Lily and James Potter?

Dumbledore slowly stood and pointed his wand at the two intruders. "Thank you, Hagrid, I will take care of this situation now. You may return to your home."

"Righ'," Hagrid agreed, nodding slowly. "I'll be outside if you need meh."

The half-giant left, and Dumbledore was alone with Lily and James Potter...or, rather, their imposters.

"Alright," Dumbledore said to the pair. "I would like to know who you two are and why you are masquerading as Lily and James Potter."

"Albus, it's us," James said, his expression still blank. "I don't what happened...I mean, Voldemort was sending the Killing Curse at me and then I woke up, and Godric's Hollow was in ruins, and...Harry's gone..." He trailed off, his expression wavering.

Lily continued for him. "And...we must have been in comas for a long time, almost a year, because Voldemort attacked on Halloween and now it's so warm out, it has to be spring or summer and..._do you know if Harry's dead?_" Lily bit her bottom lip, looking as if she was about to burst into tears at any given moment.

Dumbledore glanced at the two, never straying his eyes or his wand. "Harry Potter is very much alive," he said carefully, testing their reactions.

The effect on them was instantaneous. "Harry's...alive?" Lily choked out, her eyes clouding with tears again, this time of joy. "My baby's alive?"

James said nothing, but the blank expression on his face disappeared, slowly filling up with what seemed to be joy and just plain shock. "But...but... how could he have survived?"

"Well, if you two survived, why wouldn't Harry have?" Dumbledore kept his wand trained on "Lily and James;" after all, he couldn't be sure...

"What do you mean? Of course we're alive. It's...1981, no, it has to be...1982 now, right? Where's Harry? With Sirius?" James blinked.

Dumbledore thought a moment. "James Potter, if that's who you really are, what did you say, word for word, when you heard about the prophecy concerning either Harry or Neville Longbottom?"

James blinked. "Ummm. 'I swear, I'll die before I let that bloody bastard touch my child.'" James blinked again. "I think. My memory's sort of foggy..."

Dumbledore was in shock. Only the true James Potter could have known that. But how was it possible? Lily and James were _dead_!

He turned to Lily. "Lily, what did _you_ say in response to that?"

Lily wiped away a stray tear on her cheek. "I said... well, I was talking to Harry... 'I promise Harry, I won't let anyone touch you. Least of all Voldemort. You'll be safe.'" She blinked and looked down at her hands. When she glanced back up at Dumbledore, she noticed that his face had gone white.

He immediately turned away from the two of them and grabbed a handful of Floo powder from a pot nearby the fireplace in his office and tossed it in. "I think it is time we informed the Order of the Phoenix of what has transpired."

* * *

**Whew, sorry for any typos or mistakes. Please note me if you spot one ;D Sorry, I have to go but I wanted to get this chapter out today; I'm going away for a period of time soon. Anyways, um, review please?**

**Sorry I suck at writing Hagrid's accent.**

**-chapter edited oct 6 '08-**


	3. Explanations

**Rawr. Sorry for not updating in a long time (better than over a year, though ;D) School's started again, and let's just say that I do NOT like high school.**

**Sorry this chapter will suck. I'm not really in a writing mood, but I feel obligated to write something.**

* * *

Dumbledore turned away from the fireplace after a bit of time, in which Lily and James had seated themselves heavily on two red velvet chairs nearby in the office. The only thing on their minds was their son: _Harry. He's alive._

James looked up as soon as Dumbledore was facing them again; his face was no longer blank with shock and grief. "Albus," he murmured, his voice slightly shaky, "what _happened?_"

Dumbledore sighed and took a seat himself behind his desk. He steepled his fingers together, looking sternly over his half-moon glasses at the once-dead pair sitting in front of him, and replied, "I was hoping you could tell me that yourself."

"No," Lily spoke up now. Her voice was steady and her green-eyed gaze never wavered from Dumbledore's face. That was the Lily he knew. She was stubborn to a fault and stuck to what she wanted, what she believed in. "I think Harry is the more pressing matter right now. If he's alive, then _where is he??_"

Her voice rose to a slightly hysterical shriek near the end, showing that she wasn't as calm as she appeared. She looked away, faintly chagrined, before turning back and staring defiantly at the old headmaster.

"Tell us, Albus." James's voice was low and angry. "We're his parents. We have the right to know."

Albus sighed. They would not be pleased with him. He knew that.

"Lily, James, please calm down. Your son is perfectly safe."

Lily jumped to her feet indignantly. The result was a bit spoiled when she stumbled slightly and had to clutch the armrest on her chair for support. "Excuse me, Albus, but _I cannot calm down if I don't know where. Harry. IS!!_" Lily clenched her fists and glared. James nodded in agreement fervently, though he did not follow his wife's example and stand up himself.

Dumbledore decided it would probably be best to just tell the couple. He might as well get it over with. He had defeated Grindelwald, and faced down Voldemort plenty of times. He could do it.

For some reason, he felt as if he'd rather invite Voldemort to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters for biscuits and tea.

Shaking his head quickly, he turned back to the young couple in front of him. "Lily, your son is _safe_. He is currently living with your old family members."

Lily relaxed visibly - for about two seconds. Then she stiffened. "Wait. My mum and dad died during my seventh year." Her lip trembled just the slightest bit, hardly visible, at the words, but she continued. "My only other living relative is..."

The puzzle pieces had fallen into place for James as well. "Oh dear Merlin. No. No, Albus, you didn't."

_"Petunia?? You sent Harry to live with Petunia?? Good Lord, Albus, you know she hates magic!!"_ If James was angry, then Lily was more than just absolutely furious.

Dumbledore briefly wondered what Voldemort would think if he received a card asking him to join the esteemed headmaster of Hogwarts for tea. "Lily, please, it was for his own protection. I had hoped Petunia would hold her blood family over his dislike of magic - "

"_Dislike?!_ She _hated_ magic. And if that was true, she wouldn't have shunned me all those years ago, she would have come to my wedding, she would have returned my letters, she would have come and visited Harry when we invited her - "

"Lily, calm down," James said quietly. His hazel eyes were contemplative.

"_You're_ telling _me_ to _calm down?!_" Lily shrieked, stabbing a finger in James's chest. He didn't flinch.

"You don't know. Maybe Petunia got over her dislike for everything magic - "

Lily laughed bitterly. "Of course she did." She turned to Dumbledore again, her eyes narrowed in fury. "Tell me, _Albus_," she spat, and Dumbledore made a mental note to appreciate life a lot more if he got out of this alive. "Do you have any _proof_ Petunia and her fat whale of a husband treated Harry well?"

Dumbledore faltered, something he didn't usually do, but then again, this was Lily Evans-Potter he was dealing with. She _had_ escaped Voldemort three times - four times, it seemed to have turned out. This was definitely Lily, if her correct answer to his question and her fiery temper were anything to go by. "Lily, you know that I only had Harry's best intentions at heart."

"Oh, really? Then why did you send him to live with _Petunia_ when he _should_ have gone to Siri - " Lily froze, her eyes going wide. She put a hand to her mouth, and shook her head. "Albus. Albus," she whispered, all thoughts of Harry flying out of her mind, for the time being, anyway. "Voldemort... he must have tortured Peter to find out where we were. And then he must have killed him, and... Sirius, and Remus, and... Alice! Karen. Alyssa. The other members of the Order." Lily seemed to have suddenly rushed to the brink of hysteria again. "What _happened_ when we were in comas?"

"You may want to sit down again," was all Dumbledore said in reply.

* * *

"Fifteen. Years."

It had been half an hour since Dumbledore had began his explanations, and James and Lily had still not wrapped their heads around the fact that they had been gone, thought dead, for _fifteen sodding years._

"So Harry's a teenager now. And he knows of the prophecy. Oh Merlin, my son's _sixteen_." Lily shook her head. "This can't be possible. This isn't right."

"He's almost sixteen," Dumbledore corrected.

"Who the bloody hell cares? I haven't seen Harry in fifteen years! What's he going to think?" Lily felt a few tears leaking out of her eyes. This wasn't fair! What had she ever done to deserve missing fifteen years of her son's life?

James shook his head. "We need to see Harry."

"You may want to wait a bit," Dumbledore advised. "I've called an emergency Order meeting. Tonight, in approximately half an hour, to be precise."

Lily wanted to point out that approximating something was not really being precise, but said nothing. Harry was more important.

"And Sirius was in Azkaban!" James's mind went from thinking about his son, his family, to thinking about his friends, also his family. Only it turned out Peter wasn't...

"All thanks to Peter. Merlin, I didn't know he could even be capable of... we were his friends! Why did he betray us?!" James angrily wiped a stray tear off his face. He was a man, and therefore supposed to be manly, and tears did not constitute as manliness. But why had Peter...?

"And Alice." Lily rubbed at her tired, red-rimmed eyes. She had cried so much tonight. It only seemed like yesterday in which she and James had been in hiding with Harry, living a happy - even though it was during a war - enough life, and then, bam. Voldemort attacked, they died or something and came back to life or something, and, and... Harry was sixteen, Peter was a Death Eater, Sirius was in Azkaban, or had been, and Karen Waters had been killed shortly after, Alyssa Hemlock had disappeared without a trace, and Alice Longbottom had been tortured into insanity with her husband, Frank, and...

"Life is suddenly so messed up," Lily said angrily. "Why must Voldemort exist?"

"_C'est la vie_," James muttered, quoting something he had heard once from his mother.

Lily chuckled, but it was weak and sounded forced. "I didn't know you knew French, James."

Dumbledore sighed heavily. Such was life, yes. That reminded him (somehow)...

He stood up from his desk and walked over to the fireplace. "We have an Order meeting to attend."

* * *

**Next chapter... the Order's reactions. Muahaha. Constructive criticism is appreciated. Please read and review x)**

**chapter edited oct 6 '08**

** Anonymous reviewer: A literal translation of c'est la vie is "it is the life," but it just basically means "that's life." Like, in Chinese, "zai jian" literally means "see you again," but it's just the Chinese way of saying bye.  
**


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